


For a Rainy Day

by CurlyCue



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Finding Peace in the Rain, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Other, Rain, Sebastian has social anxiety, Smoking, Starry nights, and I have GAD so we really are that anxious couple, anyway enjoy this little uhhh. peaceful fic, because im the writer. im the boss and yall can die mad about it, because that should be a tag, fuck you im nonbinary and i exist, reader gets you/your pronouns, takes place at the mountain lake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21542533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CurlyCue/pseuds/CurlyCue
Summary: The local farmer finds a nice spot to enjoy the rain tonight.Sebastian finds someone new in his designated smoking spot.They both find peace in the rain.
Relationships: Sebastian/Player (Stardew Valley), Sebastian/Reader
Kudos: 60





	For a Rainy Day

It’s late when the rain finally succumbs to gravity, dropping from the sky and pelting the ground around you with heavy drops, filling the valley with the unmistakable, somehow soothing cacophony of water hitting so many different surfaces at once. Fortunately, you’ve found yourself in a good position to enjoy it; your skin isn’t one of those surfaces at the moment, with the exception of the arm you stick out from under the tree’s protective canopy. The droplets hit your arm with a sharp ferocity which stings more by the drop, but it makes you feel alive, and although the cool sheen of water covering your arm will undoubtedly be impossible to dry off until you get home, you can’t help but revel in the special sort of contentedness the moment causes to resonate in your chest. 

If you were anyone else, you might not have noticed his approach-- but you aren’t. You’re you, and you’re finely attuned to that sort of thing-- 

_Ha! As if._

Really, you mostly clock Sebastian’s approach by the distant sound of squelching mud and the fact that no one else in their right mind would be out by the lake in this weather, much less at this time of night. If you were anyone else, though, you’d still probably be startled by his sudden appearance. Hell, he seems startled by your presence, and he’s the one who comes up behind you like a dark specter in the night to stand under the tree in his usual spot. 

It takes a moment of his body stuttering through some half-thought actions, aborted halfway through, before he rearranges the scenario in his mind and settles himself, shoving his hands in his pockets and dropping to sit quietly on the tree’s roots, looking out over the lake. You almost expect him to ask you what the hell you’re doing-- out here in this weather, at this time of night, so far from the farm, _anything._

But he doesn’t-- barely even flicks his gaze over to yours long enough for you to register the dark circles under his eyes before he’s looking away again, almost desperate to avoid eye contact in a flash of emotion that looks something like anxiety. Somewhere deep in your core, you resonate with that-- all of it. You’ve been there, and you know you wouldn’t want it acknowledged by someone you barely know.

So you stay quiet, drawing your hand out of the rain, back in toward your body so you can appreciate the way the starlight reflects off your skin through the raindrops, simultaneously stretching your other arm out just enough to catch the rain in your hand, feel it slip through your fingers like minutes of the day. For a moment, it’s a nice, quiet moment you share. 

Then, of course, you start to feel a little awkward, which is just uncomfortable enough to motivate you into gently breaking the silence. “Just wanted some quiet?” 

At first, the question itself is enough, but then you find yourself wanting to pay less attention to the world and more attention to him, the person you’re talking to, so you twist yourself around to face him from where you’re sitting. Sebastian’s brows are drawn together, lips parted like he’s surprised you’re even talking to him. His fingers twitch visibly in his pockets, and he lets his eyes fall shut. “... Yeah,” he responds, voice low and almost defeated. Like you’d had to drag an interaction out of him. 

“Cool,” you say. “Don’t let me stop you.” It's a simple statement, completely genuine. Then, before you can parse out his response, you’re laying back so you’re looking up at the sparse canopy of the tree, patterned with stars and navy skies in the cracks between the leaves. When you close your eyes, the few drops that make it onto your face through the leaves make you feel at peace.

You’re not sure how long it is before you’re blinking awake, and you have no frame of reference to go by, because you’re just beginning to realize you’d fallen asleep at all. It doesn’t seem to be morning, luckily-- the stars are still visible, and the sky is just as dark as it had been before you dozed off. The rain has died down to a light drizzle, more of a sprinkle than the downpour it had been earlier, you realize as you sit up on your elbows. Before you can appraise your surroundings any more, your jaw unhinges in a powerful yawn. About a foot away from you, there’s a soft huff of laughter, and your eyes blink open in surprise. 

Sebastian is still there, leaned up against the trunk of the tree. His lips are quirked up in a little half smile, and in the time you’ve slept, he’s extricated something from Yoba knows where-- a little cylindrical thing he’s holding daintily between two fingers and tapping against his knee. It takes you a second to realize it’s a cigarette, and your brows furrow. 

“... You smoke?” When you speak, your voice feels weird in your throat, like the sleep changed your vocal chords in a subtle, but fundamental way. Regardless, if that’s the case, he doesn’t seem to notice.

A quick glance between the cigarette and your face almost makes you feel like he’d forgotten he was holding it, but he’s too anxious to pull that off-- it’s obvious he needs one. He's almost itching to smoke it. “Yeah. I wasn’t sure you’d want me smoking around you, but it didn’t feel right leaving you out here alone. You normally sleep outside, or...?”

Still passive with sleep, you shrug, offering up a little smile, a soft laugh. “Not usually. That’s more Linus’s thing than mine… not that I’m judging.” As you turn thoughtful look up toward the ledge the elder man’s tent resides on, your eyes soften in a faraway expression, a hint of a more nostalgic smile tugging the corner of your lips. “And, uh… thanks. That’s really considerate of you,” you remark after a quiet moment filled only by the gentle pattering of rain. “I appreciate it.”

The only response you get in turn is a pensive hum, and for a moment, the two of you sit quietly, enjoying the rain. Then, he clears his throat, drawing your attention and breaking your reverie; when you look over at him, he pauses for a second, seemingly caught off guard by something-- but before you can ask, he raises the hand holding his cigarette and tilts it back and forth like a metronome given a speed boost. “You mind?” 

“Huh? Oh,” you mumble. Your mouth tends to do that sometimes: gets ahead of you, starts forming words before your mind can even register what’s happening. Other times, it’s the opposite, but it always results in embarrassment regardless. 

“Sorry,” you laugh, glancing away as your cheeks warm up from the inside out. “Normally, I’d ask you not to, but… it does seem like I’ve sort of, ah... stolen your spot.” A tinny noise punctuates your statement with a gentle tap of your boot to the small metal ashtray sat against the tree, which, until now, you hadn’t really noticed, having assumed it was just litter. Living in the city will do that to you: the inescapable presence of trash is just part of the landscape. 

You’re on the fence about what to say next, but you figure you’ll give him the all clear. A glance up to see his reaction shows Sebastian is giving you a strange look, hard and studious, almost like appraisal. You’re not sure what to make of it, so you just offer up a small smile and continue as you lay back again, crossing your arms behind your head to use as a pillow. “So, just this once, I guess… go for it.”


End file.
